All 4 members of Buried Life visit Behrend tonight

HEAR IT

The Buried Life (Dave Lingwood, Ben Nemtin, Jonnie Penn, Duncan Penn) will speak today at 7:30 p.m. in McGarvey Commons of Penn State Behrend's Reed Union Building. Free. For more on the group, see www.facebook.com/TBL. For information, call 898-6171.

Visiting Erie.

The Buried Life can scratch that item off its bucket list. All four members from the MTV show of the same name will deliver a multimedia presentation tonight at Penn State Behrend.

Expect clips, anecdotes and inspirational advice from buddies who made a living by making their dreams comes true.

"We love doing the talks at universities. When we started, we were the same age; we were all 18 and 19," said Dave Lingwood, whose Buried Life friends include Ben Nemtin and brothers Jonnie and Duncan Penn.

They aim to inspire.

"If anyone in the audience is going through a tough time, or they have something they're thinking of doing or a project they're thinking would be cool to do, we love to go in and (say) you can do those things," Lingwood said. "With the kind of things we learned along the way, we can pass along some tools for people to get those ideas and projects kick-started."

The friends -- all from Canada -- conceived the Buried Life through brainstorming sessions on Skype. They made a bucket list of 100 things to accomplish before they died, including "start a television show" (No. 53), which MTV made happen in 2010, and write a best-selling book (No. 19), which they accomplished in January with "What Do You Want to Do Before You Die?"

In turn, they also vowed to help strangers accomplish their wishes, which Lingwood especially enjoys.

"It's much more rewarding when you can enter someone's life and see an immediate change that you've made," he said. "It's a very powerful feeling. It actually gives you more and teaches you more about yourself than crossing things off your own list."

One young man asked the Buried Life to help his father, who was homeless.

"We were able to get his dad a home in Washington, D.C., and get him off the street," Lingwood said. "He's still in the home and doing well."

Lingwood had a different home in mind for another Buried Life mission: Sneak into the Playboy mansion. That's his favorite.

"When we crashed the party, it was like 'Oceans 11.' It was such a ridiculous scheme, and we pulled it off," he said. "The party was crazy."

How crazy?

"I was dressed up like an Oompa Loompa in full makeup and ended up making out with a Playboy bunny while Snoop Dogg was playing."

The Buried Life has crossed 85 items off its list. Some goals seem impossible, like going into space and hosting "Saturday Night Live." Some missions fizzled, like telling a joke on late-night TV. "We underestimated how hard it was," Lingwood said. But they pulled off No. 95: Playing hoops with President Barack Obama.

"He was such an amazing, genuine guy," Lingwood said. "He was so cool, you forgot he was the President. He was like your cool friend's dad."

Not surprisingly, he rooted for Obama on Election Day.

"I want to have a rematch," Lingwood explained. "And I didn't want his excuse to be that he was still down about losing the election."

HEAR IT

The Buried Life (Dave Lingwood, Ben Nemtin, Jonnie Penn, Duncan Penn) will speak today at 7:30 p.m. in McGarvey Commons of Penn State Behrend's Reed Union Building. Free. For more on the group, see www.facebook.com/TBL. For information, call 898-6171.